Apex court upholds HC bail order for CU teacher in sedition case

The Supreme Court today upheld a High Court order that granted bail to Anwar Hossain Choudhury, an assistant professor of Chittagong University's sociology department, in a sedition case.

A four-member bench of the Appellate Division of the SC headed by Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain passed a "no order" on a government petition, seeking stay on the HC's bail order.

So, the HC's August 20 order that granted a six-week bail to Anwar in the sedition case will remain effective, Anwar's Lawyer Motaher Hossain Sazu told The Daily Star today.

He said former Bangladesh Chhatra League convener of Fatikchari upazila unit Asaduzzaman Tanvir filed the case with the court of Metropolitan Magistrate in Chattogram on May 17, 2018 following an article published in Bangla Daily Bhorer Kagoj translating the observations Anwar made on the Liberation War, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the Awami League in an article published in a US journal.

The Bhorer Kagoj has published the news by distorting his observations, he said.

Anwar had then sent a rejoinder to the Bhorer Kagoj office saying that he did not make any objectionable observations on the Liberation War, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the Awami League in his article published in a US journal.

But Bhorer Kagoj did not publish the rejoinder, he added.

Anwar's article was reportedly published in the Global Journal of Human-Social Science: C, Sociology and Culture, Volume 17, Issue, 3, Version 1.0 in 2017, according to the case statement.

Deputy Attorney General Bishwajit Debnath represented the state during the apex court's virtual hearing on the government's stay petition today.